WTEN Preview: WVU & ISU
4/6/2017 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
FORT WORTH, Texas - For the second straight weekend, the No. 30 TCU women's tennis team will stay at home to host a pair of Big 12 opponents as they welcome West Virginia on April 7 and Iowa State on April 9 to the Bayard H. Friedman Tennis Center.
The Horned Frogs (10-7, 2-3 Big 12) and the Mountaineers (4-11, 0-5 Big 12) will open up play at 5:30 p.m., on Friday before taking on the Cyclones (15-6, 1-4 Big 12) on Sunday at 1 p.m. A free tennis clinic is available to all those age 3 to 8th grade 30 minutes prior to the start of each match on the Bernard J. 'Tut' Bartzen Varsity Courts with free admission to all fans and free pizza courtesy of Buffalo Bros., in between the doubles and singles portion of both matches.
TCU Notables
TCU opened Big 12 play at home last weekend with a 1-1 showing. The Frogs began with a 4-1 victory over Oklahoma before battling it out with No. 7 Oklahoma State and ultimately dropping a 4-2 decision to the Cowgirls. Donika Bashota and Sofiko Kadzhaya both went undefeated in singles over the weekend with 2-0 performances.
In the rankings, Seda Arantekin is still ranked in the singles poll at No. 73 with a team-best 16 wins on the season with nine coming in dual match play. In the doubles poll, Donika Bashota and Olaya Garrido-Rivas hold the best team ranking at No. 11 with nine wins on the season and four over ranked opponents. Garrido-Rivas and Seda Arantekin are also in the doubles poll at No. 81 with a 4-0 mark in dual match play and two wins over ranked opponents.
Scouting the Mountaineers
West Virginia enters Friday's match on a six-match losing streak with the last four losses in Big 12 action coming in sweeps. The Mountaineers did not win a match in the month of March and remains winless in April. The last win WVU posted came on Feb. 19 as they scored a 4-3 victory over Marshall at home. Habiba Shaker leads the team with eight singles wins, while two different doubles pairs of four wins on the season.
Scouting the Cyclones
Iowa State started the season by winning 15 of its first 17 matches, but has hit a losing skid as the team has dropped four straight matches in Big 12 play. The only win in conference action for the Cyclones came at the beginning of March with a 4-2 win over West Virginia. Regina Espindola (12-5) and Margarita Timakova (10-4) are the only singles players with double-digit wins, while two different doubles pairs have 11 wins on the season.
All-Time Series Records
TCU will face off with West Virginia and Iowa State for the fifth time in program history as the Frogs hold a perfect 4-0 record over both opponents. Friday and Sunday's matches will be only the second time the teams have faced off in Fort Worth. TCU has only faced both opponents as conference foes with the first meetings dating back to 2013.
Live Results
Live video of the match can be found at PlaySight.com with live results at TCU.StatBroadcast.com. Final results and a recap will be available at GoFrogs.com following the completion of the competitions. In-match updates can also be found by following TCU women's tennis on twitter (@TCUWomensTennis).
Players Mentioned
